


Artifice

by Anonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe, Angst, Cannibalism, Champion Shiro (Voltron), Cyborgs, Dark Magic, Escape, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Humor, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Plot Twists, Prosthesis, Slavery, Space Road Trip, Technopathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:55:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23969065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Shiro finally escaped from imprisonment as the galra’s greatest weapon, but he didn’t anticipate acting on a gut instinct to bring along Zarkon’s pet- the last surviving Altean. The odd couple got to know each other as they traveled to Earth and Shiro found that they had more in common than he thought.Much more. The disturbing secrets of the Empire revealed themselves in that small escape pod bound for home.
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 46
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

Shiro could hardly believe he was doing this. Could hardly believe that his plan of tracking the sentry robot’s movements and slipping through the corridors unseen as the galra recovered from another one of their lavish banquets was working.

But it was expected from the Champion of the arena. Shiro scoffed at the title.  
  
A champion. All that he really did was stay alive, and if that meant becoming victorious in the sadistic fights with monsters mutated with druid magic that Zarkon pitted against him then so be it. What were they going to give him, a medal? Anything that they claimed he would earn from becoming their human weapon was a lie.

“Stop. Who is there?” a robotic voice boomed in the silence.

Shiro froze. He had a split second to think.

There were only two sentries in that hall. Shiro decided to take them on, swiping one off of it’s feet with his leg so he could easily take out the other with one jab of his scalding prosthetic arm. He finished the first and moved on.

The fact that the guards weren’t even living beings was just another stark reminder of him being the only human on the planet. It was almost a good thing that he ended up in the arena because he knew that humans were a... delicacy to the galra. Literally.

The meat at their banquets and celebrations wasn’t beef.

Shiro had no idea where their “food” came from since there weren't any other human prisoners. Perhaps it was imported- people trafficked through the universe to be immediately served fresh on arrival for Zarkon himself and his cohort. Hopefully not directly from Earth. Shiro wanted a home to go back to that wasn’t under galra control.

A door came into view that was more heavily guarded. Four sentries. Shiro knew what had to be behind there.

When Zarkon conquered Altea it was a blood bath. The King, his daughter the princess, and every other Altean were lost in the invasion. Zarkon’s rage from his long time rivalry with the planet fueled the destruction of it’s entire being. Altea was smashed into atoms. The planet no longer existed.

However, the Lord of the galra empire proudly kept a trophy. The last surviving Altean.

The Altean served as his pet and acted as such. The young man with his white hair and pointed ears sat on a pillow at Zarkon’s feet, silent and emotionless, at all times. While Zarkon loomed over the arena fights on his throne his pet watched Shiro will dull, uncaring eyes. Zarkon would stroke his pet’s head like he were a loyal dog.

Shiro resented the Altean. He couldn’t help being bitter as he was forced to fight and Zarkon’s precious pet got to sit on his ass and do nothing but sit pretty all hours of the day.

Four against one wasn’t easy, but Shiro wasn’t called the Champion for nothing.

The robots weren’t ones for teamwork. When one was being attacked the others would attack as well rather than support each other. Shiro picked them off one by one but it left him open to their lasers while he fought. He took a shot to his thigh and struggled not to shout.

Shiro stared at the door, now unguarded, with the remains of the bots at his feet. He contemplated.

He wanted to set free every prisoner on that wretched planet, regardless of species. But that was impossible. He was only one person. It was risky enough to free _himself_.

But behind that door was the last Altean in the universe. It would only take a second to grab him and run. Give him a chance despite everything. And what if it turned out that there really were other Alteans hiding out somewhere? Could Zarkon’s pet be essential to the survival of their species?  
  
Shiro made up his mind. He smashed the control panel and the door flew open, electricity sparking as it slid aside.

Zarkon’s Altean sat on a raggedy cot in a small shoebox of a room and barely acknowledged Shiro’s presence. Shiro had expected something more cushy but he wasn’t going to complain.

”Come on, we’re getting out of this shithole. Permanently” said Shiro. He grabbed the Altean’s wrist and all but dragged him out. His blue eyes widened slightly but he said nothing as per usual.

Of course they couldn’t have had it easy getting the rest of the way out. Shiro turned a corner, spotted a robot, and turned right back around with his back smack against the wall. He slapped a hand over the Altean’s mouth and pulled him against him by his fancy silk robes.

”Keep staying quiet” hissed Shiro. He could feel the other young man trembling slightly and panting through his nose. Shiro almost felt bad for him. This was more activity than he’d seen in years, probably.

Shiro let go and pointed to the Altean’s feet. “Uh, stay.”

The robot was defeated as quietly as possibly. Which wasn’t that quiet. They really needed to book it.

When they reached the hangar of escape pods things got real for Shiro. He had a wild thought in the back of his mind that perhaps he could slink back to his cell before they were caught and shot at by galra ships as they flew away. Act like nothing happened and maybe Zarkon would blame someone else for his missing pet and destroyed sentries.

Shiro shook his head and pulled the two of them in.

The Altean sat in the passenger seat instinctively and Shiro looked over the controls.

”Well. I can wing it and figure how to control this thing but without coordinates we’ll be drifting in space forever. You wouldn’t happen to know the way to Earth, would you?”

When Shiro said “Earth” the Altean’s face snapped to him for a second. Then he resumed staring ahead.

”Didn’t think so. Oh well, the dark vacuum of space is better than Daibazaal any day.”

Shiro pressed his metal hand against the control pad and the dashboard lit up from the center in winding lines and paths to it’s many buttons and levers. They took off swiftly as alarms started blaring from the palace.

It was suspicious that they weren’t being pursued by the galra. Perhaps they were just quick enough to get away from the line of fire. Shiro couldn’t think about it too hard because his mind was clouded with pain. The wound from the sentry’s laser gun on his leg was flaring. The stress of everything was catching up to him. He switched on autopilot and sunk into his chair.

He felt a pair of eyes on him. The Altean was watching him with some concern as his vision became dark around the edges. Those blue eyes on him started looking purple. White hair grew and turned black as Shiro hallucinated.

”Keith?”

~

Shiro started, awake.

”It’s about time, sleepyhead.”

He whipped his head to the passenger seat and rubbed his eyes in confusion.

The Altean was next to him, smirking. With life in his expression he didn’t even look like the same person. And he was... a robot? He had removed his robes and his entire body from the rib area down, including his entire arms, was cybernetic. It was a translucent white- plastic?- with glowing wires running throughout. If it weren’t see-through he looked like he could be wearing a costume.

”You’re a robot” said Shiro.

The Altean chuckled. “A cyborg, Mr. Champion. Get it right. I still have a heart and a brain.”  
  
“Don’t call me that” snapped Shiro.

”Then don’t treat me like an animal. The name’s Lance. How about you?”

”...Shiro.”

Shiro looked around. His thigh had been bandaged and there was a med kit by their feet.

”Thanks for patching me up.”

Lance waved a hand. “No biggie. Thanks for busting me out last night.”

Shiro must have been woozy from blood loss because what came out of his mouth was, “That’s what she said.”

Lance laughed heartily, his cheeks blushing under the blue Altean marks under his eyes. Shiro’s heart fluttered for a moment.

”Are you even the same person from yesterday?” asked Shiro.

“Hardly. That druid magic is hard stuff. Haggar keeps me high on it constantly. There’s probably still more to come out of my system.”

”Oh.” Shiro was surprised even though he should have known better. He just never imagined that there was a real person under there. He was so used to that vacant, cold face.

”So we’ve kinda been floating around into nothingness. I don’t know the way directly home- I mean, you know, to Earth- but I can ask the ship if it does.”

Shiro was going to ask what that meant but Lance was already up on his feet and _caressing_ the dashboard. His fingertips lit up.  
  
“There we go. Hmmm... yeah. This ship didn’t go to Earth but it’s been in contact with one that knows _another_ one that did a long time ago. The coordinates are here, but they might be a little off since it’s only from word of mouth, so to speak. It’ll do!” Lance entered the coordinates and gave the ship a little pat.

”I heard that Alteans have magic, but damn” said Shiro.

“Nah, you got it wrong. The ships talk to me because I’m one of them“ said Lance, smiling, as he held up his hand.

”I kind of get that” Shiro sympathized, eyeing his own prosthetic metal arm.

“I remember when that happened” said Lance bluntly.

”What do you know, me too” said Shiro. It was _his_ own arm that got minced in the arena.

Lance looked at the floor. ”Sorry, I... I never... just, sorry” said Lance.

Shiro could tell that he wasn’t just apologizing for the comment.

”You don’t have to pity me. Have you seen yourself?” he said.

Lance smiled sadly. He shook himself out of it and plopped back into his chair.

”So. Earth. Wanna tell me about it?”

Shiro brightened. “About Earth? Man, it’s been so long. Earth is very... green. Lots of vegetation. Or, well, there used to be. All the land development in recent years really depleted the natural resources. But there was tons of water left. Not _drinkable_ water, but ocean. And rain. Which is sometimes drinkable, but I digress.”

”Ocean!” Lance cheered. “I love beaches. What’s rain again? It sounds familiar but refresh me.”

”Water that falls from the sky in droplets. Guess they didn’t have that on Altea, huh?”

”Nope. But we did have giant flaming rocks falling down from the sky. It was, like, instant death but also really cool looking.”

Shiro smiled. “Sounds wild.”

”Totally. I’m a wild guy from a wild place. I know I said I’m not an animal but I’m kind of animal” said Lance with that smirk.

They talked for hours, which turned into days as they slowly made their way towards Earth.

~

Daibazaal was ridiculously far from Earth. As inconvenient as it was it gave Shiro hope that Zarkon’s humans weren’t currently being stolen from the original source.

The meager emergency rations that came with the pod ran low quickly. Shiro expressed his concern until checking the navigation system.

“Hey, there’s a planet coming up. Maybe we can get some supplies.”

Lance hummed in thought.

”Hmm. I think this one might be Magnolio. Lots of flowers there, not sure about anything edible besides.”

”I’ve heard talk of that planet” said Shiro. “There are supposed to be small, underdeveloped populations of natives that aren’t too keen on outsiders.”

”Well, then, we’ll just slip in and out and they never need to know we were there!”

Shiro landed the ship gently in an area concealed by brush. Lance wasn’t kidding about the flowers. The ground was practically a living rainbow.

”Woah” breathed Lance. He picked an enchanting blue one with feathery petals and held it up to his nose. Shiro came over to see it and they held it between them.

Their faces were a centimeter apart with only the flower to separate them. Their hands touched while they held the plant.

There was a moment of peace before realization sunk in and they snapped apart, looking away and scratching their heads.  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Running from a group of angry aliens that insisted the penalty for gathering their bush berries was death was the obvious conclusion to landing on Magnolio.

“Come on, we’re starving here! You guys don’t own the trees!” whined Lance.

“Thieves! You must pay for your crimes!” yelled a stout, cow-patterned alien with large cat-like ears. The others following him howled their agreement.

“Halt” commanded a new voice.

It took Shiro a second to realize that he and Lance had stopped being pursued. He stopped to turn around, Lance still running beside him. He grabbed Lance’s wrist and yanked him to face behind them.

The mob stood reverently under a tall goat-like figure in regal attire.

“What do you all think you are doing?” asked the goat in a deep, calm voice.

“The furless ones have stolen the fertility of the plants! They must pay with their lives! Remove their tongues and have them attempt to sing the anthem of our people and we will laugh at their failure!” shouted the cow.

The goat stared. “You lot need help.”

“Help that you cannot possibly give! You are a disgrace as a king! Powerless! Long live the old king!”

“There are no more kings; I was elected into office! Take it up with your own bretheren!”

Lance and Shiro looked at each other.

The goat turned to face the two.

“I deeply apologize for the trouble. Our planet provides for all who need. Interfering with it’s wishes is foolish.”

“Thanks. We were just leaving” said Shiro.

“If you are in need of further rations I would be happy to assist you as an apology.”

“No no, we’re good. We’d rather not hang around, we’ve got places to be” Shiro insisted. His audibly growling stomach thought otherwise.

“I think we’ll take you up on that! All of this running’s made Shiro hungry!” said Lance, elbowing Shiro. Shiro shrugged.

About half an hour later he and Lance waddled back to their pod carrying armloads of fresh fruit and non perishables to last them after.

“This should definitely be enough for the both of us. That man was very generous and we didn’t even catch his name. I hope this food is safe. Damn, what if he poisoned it…?” mumbled Shiro.

“That’s your problem, man. I don’t eat” said Lance.

“You what?” balked Shiro. He looked at Lance’s stomach. Or, nonexistent stomach replaced with wires and metal and plastic. How did he not notice that Lance hadn’t been eating?

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier before he gave us so much food?”

Lance looked away. “I didn’t want you to be hungry. You’ve probably always been hungry on Daibazaal and I haven’t, you know, had to deal with that for a while. So.”

Shiro put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance…”

Lance’s ears turned pink. 

“You dropped some fruit.”

  
~

Shiro was trying to get some shut eye. Every time he closed his eyes he saw visions of Zarkon. It felt menacing and not the same as a bad memory or a nightmare. It was almost like a dark premonition.

He glanced beside him at the passenger seat. Lance didn’t seem to be able to sleep, either.

“You okay?” asked Shiro.

“Hm? Yeah, yeah” said Lance dismissively. “Except… it kinda feels like I’m…”

“Being watched?” Shiro finished.

Lance’s head snapped towards Shiro and he paled.

“You too?”

Shiro nodded. “I think it’s Zarkon.”

Lance bit his lip.

“That’s not good.”

Shiro huffed. “Yeah. He may be tracking us.”

Lance looked down at himself. “My body says that there isn’t anything inside of it that could give out our location.”

Shiro almost forgot about Lance’s persuasive conversational abilities.

“Then it must be my arm.”

“Maybe not! It could be the druids doing something without technology.” 

“Can you ask it?” 

Shiro held out his metal arm.

Lance hesitantly held Shiro’s hand. It was surprisingly warm. He closed his eyes.

“It’s stubborn. It doesn’t like me invading it’s private infrastructure.”

“Shit.”

“For what it’s worth, it didn’t tell me outright but I don’t think your arm is being tracked. It’s being difficult, but not tracked.”

“If you think so” said Shiro.

Also, he never thought he’d feel proud of an arm but there he was.

Lance’s eyes widened. “The ship!”

“You think he’s tracking our ship?” asked Shiro.

“No, no, the ship is in a sort of distress” explained Lance. He stood and rested a hand on the console.

“Oh no.”

“What? What is it saying?” 

“There’s something coming. Something big. This may be a small escape pod but it’s very advanced- it can sense a wormhole jump in progress.”

Shiro stood himself. “A _wormhole?_ ”

“Behind us-!”

Space and time _rippled_ behind the escape pod. A circular light display unlike anything Shiro had ever seen blossomed from nothing. They watched with eyes transfixed to their rear view screen, mouths hanging open.

And out of the wormhole came a galra warship.

“Okay okay okay, they found us, this is bad!” screamed Lance.

The warship charged up a laser and Shiro just barely had time to grab the controls and steer out of the beam’s way.

“Is Zarkon on that ship? Does he really want us back that badly?!” yelled Shiro.

“I don’t know!”

“Look, you’re Altean, right? Alteans are magical. That wormhole back there- that was magic, wasn’t it? Magic and technology. You’re good with both. Can’t you magic up anything to get us out of here?”

“I-I’m not good with magic!” stammered Lance. “Not all Alteans have magic!”

“Okay, well-”

“Wait wait wait. Remember when I said there might still be a drop of magic in me from the druids? Maybe I can, like- if I connect with the ship-”

Lance placed both hands on the dashboard.

“The ship could maybe pull it out of me through my tech to power a jump and-”

The lights on the controls flared blindingly. Lance squeezed his eyes shut, rigid but shaking.

“Lance?!”

Bright light erupted in front of them and Shiro felt himself tipping sideways.

Between one heartbeat and the other they were on the other side of the galaxy.

Shiro straightened himself up. Lance was slumped in his seat but awake, barely.

“You did it, Lance. We got away!”

Lance smiled weakly. “Yup. I’m the best” he chuckled.

“Well, using magic was my idea, so I’m at least partly the best” teased Shiro.

“You can’t be partly best!”

“Watch me!”

The two joked around to ease the tension and just talked. Like they’d been doing the entire time they’d been free from the galra. About anything and everything.

Eventually they had to address the fact that the wormhole jump set them back days, maybe weeks, in getting to Earth. But at that point they weren’t even sure that they should be heading to Earth. They slipped out of Zarkon’s grasp for the moment but he was probably still tracking them.

Shiro insisted that it was his arm. Lance insisted that it was _not_ Shiro’s arm. Shiro wanted to try deactivating it.

“I seriously shouldn’t have to tell you not to disable your only weapon” said Lance.

“Yeah, my arm will do a lot of good to enemy vessels from inside this cockpit, huh?” retorted Shiro. “Look, we’re not having any close combat out here and we don’t have any more ideas. There’s no way that Zarkon just stopped tracking us.”

Lance sighed. “Fine, but if you can’t reactivate it for some reason and a giant monster’s about to eat us I’m saving myself.”

Shiro had turned his arm off before. He basically willed it to stop working and it did. He rummaged around in the storage compartments and found a spare blanket that he used as a makeshift sling to hold the dead weight.

Trying to fall asleep should have been harder now that they knew that Zarkon was chasing them. But between the wormhole and deactivating his arm Shiro was able to find some semblance of peace.

~

Shiro woke alone.

Lance wasn’t next to him. The Altean wasn’t behind the seats. He wasn’t in the little toilet cubicle. It was like he had vanished. 

Shiro swallowed down panic. He didn’t panic. He almost called out Lance’s name until a rustling at the back of the pod caught his attention.

He considered reactivating his arm but the risk was too much. Besides, he was very strong with or without it. He padded silently, slowly, to the back wall. Nothing was hiding in the shadows.

But the noises were coming from behind the hatch of the cargo hold.

Several possibilities, including stowaway galra and hungry space animals, raced through Shiro’s mind. Then he heard a voice. Was that… crying?

Shiro grasped the handle.

“No! S-Shiro! Don’t open it!” begged Lance’s voice.

Shiro pulled his hand away from the handle as if it burned him. “Lance? What’s going on? Are we under attack? Are you hurt?” 

“No” sniffled Lance. He _was_ crying.

“No what, Lance? Talk to me.”

“I’m alone, we’re not under attack. And I’m not… hurt.”

Shiro didn’t like the hesitancy in that statement.

“Then why are you out in the cargo hold?” he asked, sitting down next to the door.

“Don’t come in.”

“I’ll come in if there’s some emergency that you’re not telling me about, but if you just need some space then I’ll respect that. Well, actually, it’s not temperature regulated out there so… you might need to come in if you don’t want to get hypothermia.”

Lance sniffled again.

“Don’t look at me” he whispered.

That also didn’t sit well in Shiro’s stomach.

“Buddy, you’re freaking me out a little here. I don’t care if wires are coming loose or if it’s Altean molting season or what- I’ve seen some nasty shit, it won’t shock me. But if it makes you feel better I’ll close my eyes and go back to my seat, okay? Just come out of there, it’s gotta be freezing.”

“Promise?” asked Lance in a small voice.

“Promise.”

Shiro turned around and made himself sit back in the pilot’s chair. He heard the hatch open and close.

“I’m out” croaked Lance.

“Great” said Shiro. “I’m still not looking.”

“N-no, it’s only fair for you to see, you can look, I just wasn’t- I’m sorry, Shiro” Lance babbled. 

Shiro looked.

Lance’s hair had darkened into brown. His pointed ears had rounded off. The marks under his eyes had disappeared.

He was human.

“I don’t understand” said Shiro. He approached Lance, expecting the other to flinch away or protest. He didn’t, so Shiro sat beside Lance as the Altean- human?- hugged his knees to his chest on the floor.

“All the druid magic is gone now so I went back to how I’m supposed to look. How I was born. I’m _sorry,_ Shiro!” Lance sobbed.

“What on Earth are you sorry for? I mean, I’m confused as hell, but why are you apologizing for looking human?” asked Shiro. He couldn’t wrap his head around all this.

“Because I lied to you! By omission, anyway. And- and- Zarkon tortured you- your arm got smashed in that fight! And I was just sitting there watching! He treated you so badly and was so easy on me- and now that you know I’m human there’s not even a reason for that! We could have been in each other’s places! It should have been me!”

“Oh, Lance” said Shiro gently. He cupped Lance’s tear-stained face in his flesh hand. Lance looked up at him.

“You didn’t ask for any of this. You only sat and watched because you were forced to- you couldn’t physically do anything else. And you don’t need to downplay your own suffering; Zarkon took plenty from you, too” Shiro said as he lowered his hand to hold Lance’s. 

Lance squeezed his fingers back like a lifeline.

“Yeah, but they put me under when they took _my_ arms.”

“Lance.”

Lance sighed.

“So. You’re human. You came from Earth?” asked Shiro.

“Me and my family left for Altea when I was little so I hardly remember living on Earth. But I always missed it. When Zarkon destroyed Altea I was the only one that survived. Mi familia, Veronica, everyone, they’re all dead and I’ll never see them again!” Lance’s sobbing started up once more.

Shiro put his good arm around Lance and Lance leaned into him, burying his face in Shiro’s shirt.

“You’ve been holding all of this in for a long time, huh?” said Shiro.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be acting like this” hiccuped Lance.

“Everyone needs a good cry now and then” reassured Shiro.

After Lance had calmed as much as he was going to he squeezed Shiro’s hand again.

“Thanks” he whispered.

“No problem. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

Lance almost smiled. If Shiro looked closely he could still see that pink flush on Lance’s ears when he was flustered, even without the points.

When Shiro made to get up Lance stopped him.

“Wait. There’s more that I haven’t told you yet. The most important thing.”

Shiro listened.

“The galra eat humans not just because they have a taste for it- it gives them _power._ They’re the most physically and mentally strong they’ve ever been because of it. And now they’re even more dangerous because they’re desperate- they just lost their main sources of stamina.”

“That’s insane” breathed Shiro. “If we could cut off their supply- wait, what do you mean they just lost it? What happened?”

“We escaped, that’s what happened. It’s not easy getting human meat. The Empire secures a human every few years and rations it out. Serving only the Emperor and his most important galra in tiny increments at every banquet.”

“So they ran out of their last human and are going after us next?” asked Shiro, brows furrowed.

“They’re going after _you_ next” said Lance. He looked away and closed his eyes. “Zarkon wanted an Altean trophy. He got me instead. A little spell from his druids and he’d fooled everyone that he’d got himself an Altean pet at his feet. It worked out better for him in the end because he got what he _really_ wanted.”

Lance held up his hand and flexed it, looking inside at the wires and thin metal armature.

“Why would the galra amputate perfectly healthy body parts?” he asked no one.

Shiro felt sick. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. How long had this been going on? Every banquet they were eating- Shiro covered his mouth. They had escaped only hours after the last banquet. The food had to be fresh. What kind of condition was Lance in when Shiro had manhandled him out of there? What about now? What part of his body was currently healing? And to think Lance attended those banquets beside Zarkon.

Watching.

“Hey, hey, I’m sorry- damn it, I’m sorry” said Lance, hands hovering awkwardly over Shiro’s shoulders.

Shiro hadn’t realized that he was breathing too fast and his eyes were watering. He took a slow, deep breath and wiped his face.

“Stop saying that already” said Shiro.

“So-” Lance shut his mouth.

Shiro composed himself and got up. Lance followed. Shiro wouldn’t be able to look Lance in the eye for a minute. Instead he looked out the window.

“We can’t go home” he said.

“I know” Lance replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really don’t have it in me to finish this story. maybe in the future but for now i’m marking it as complete. sorry for the cliffhanger.


End file.
